Plantains again

Today I've got a couple more Plantain tees to show you, which I think brings my total up to roughly 11,000 items sewn from this pattern.

I made both tees from the original (non-updated) pattern in a size 40 shoulder widened to a 42 under the armscye and size 42 sleeves.  I think, at a glance, these tees look like they fit perfectly well, and I certainly would agree, were I to happen on them in a store.  But as usual, here I am picking apart every wrinkle and pucker.  Every time I critique the fit of my garments, I get encouraging comments saying that I'm too hard on myself, etc.  And I totally appreciate and get that.   I do wear these tees a lot, so my fit critiques don't really hinder the amount of use I get from a garment.  I just find that I kind of enjoy analyzing fit issues. I guess it's almost like a secondary hobby to my sewing. Anyone else do this?

Striped Plantain Tee Dresses

I've been eyeing up the uber-popular McCalls 6886 pattern lately.  If we lived in the States, I would have picked it up at a Joann's sale by now. As I've been too spoiled by the $1 sales to pay mail-order prices for Big 4 patterns, I decided to use my Plantain t-shirt pattern to make the dress.

April 2019 and my Me-Made May Pledge

I don't have a focused Me-Made May Pledge this year.  I've gone from nearly everything in my closet being made by me, to not having much that fits, and even less that is me-made. I'm hoping to continue losing weight, so trying to sew a new wardrobe quickly doesn't make too much sense either.  So I will document my outfits on the days that I wear me-made, try to repeat outfits as rarely as possible, see if I can alter anything else to fit, and sew a few new things that I really need - like a pair of jeans and long-sleeved tops.

Copycat Plantain dress

Earlier this winter, I saw a lovely dress on Instagram and immediately fell in love.  It was a lengthened navy-blue jersey Plantain dress and the shape was perfect and easy.  

Fabric Mart had a sale a few days later and in the sale was a 4-yard pre-cut of this navy jersey, which was listed as cotton/rayon/lycra.  My striped Blackwood cardigan is also cotton/rayon/lycra from FabricMart, and I really liked the heft and hand of the fabric, plus it was in the exact shade I wanted, so I was sold.  The fabric didn't disappoint, and I was even more pleased with my purchase when the yardage came out of the wash with that unmistakeable wool smell.  I don't think it's a pure wool/lycra, but some percentage of the fabric definitely came from a sheep.  The dress took just under 2 yards, and I have about 2 yards left for another garment in the future.

I made up a Plantain from the same adjusted pattern as the purple Plantain tee I made last month.  I lengthened it 17", continuing the side seam angle all the way down.  I ended up cutting about 2.5" off before hemming it up another inch.  (I actually didn't realize that I had ended up with a dipped hem in the back until I saw these photos.  I might even it out, I might not.  Haven't decided yet!)

Following my frustration with the Plantain sleeves when I last made the pattern, I decided to use the size 16 Renfrew sleeve with 1/2" shaved off each side seam. The Renfrew has a symmetrical sleeve, but it generally fits me with the right amount of ease once I take in the side seams.  

I had assumed that the sleeve was just wider at the top, but I was curious, so I compared the two pattern pieces.  Apologies for the blurry iPhone photo, but it illustrates the differences well enough.   The Plantain sleeve, in white, is underneath the Renfrew sleeve, in pattern tissue.  

I walked the Renfrew sleeve cap along the Plantain sleeve cap, and they are almost exactly the same length.  But as you (probably can't) see, the Renfrew sleeve cap is about 1/2" taller than the Plantain sleeve cap.  I was also surprised to find that the Plantain sleeve is actually a bit wider than the Renfrew sleeve at the top of the arm (and more than it would seem, because this newest version of the Plantain only has a 3/8" seam allowance, while the Renfrew has a 5/8").  And yet the Plantain sleeve is much tighter on my biceps than the Renfrew sleeve.  So it turns out that the height of the sleeve cap has a good deal to do with fit at the bicep.  I feel like this is a pretty significant lightbulb moment for me, and am looking to the prospect of better-fitting sleeves in the future!

There is a bit of fabric bunching at the front armscye.  I think I could fix that by moving the center of the sleeve cap towards the front sleeve, the way you do when you adjust a sleeve for a forward shoulder (and this would take care of making the sleeve asymmetrical).  I may try that out next time I make a Plantain (which might be sooner than I thought, now that I have a better-fitting sleeve for it).  The folds on the lower 2/3 of the sleeve indicate that it's too big, but they really don't bother me - they pass the "would I notice this if it were on a RTW dress sleeve?" test just fine.

All in all, I think the dress was a great success and I am very excited to have it in my closet.  I'm looking forward to wearing it with clogs and bare legs in the not-too-distant future!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Plantain, again

My parents-in-law have doubled their grandchildren in the past 13 months. So when the whole family got together over New Year's, a family photo was high on the agenda.  Earlier in the year, my sisters-in-law and I agreed on a navy, gray and mustard yellow color scheme.  I was very tempted to wear yellow on top - it is my favorite color and looks reasonably well on me - but a savvy friend, knowing that I was not feeling excellent about my weight, advised me to wear dark colors on top.  

After a browse or two through the thrift store racks (because I refuse to pay retail prices for what I hope will only be "transition" clothes) it became clear that I was going to have to make something.  Luckily I had this great navy and white striped cotton/lycra in my stash (purchased from Fabric Mart back in the fall).  I decided to go back to my selfish sewing roots and make a Plantain.

I messed up a bit while cutting the top.  I had intended to cut a 40 shoulder widening to a 44 in the bust and continuing the 44 to the hem.  But somehow I ended up widening only to a 42.  It feels a little tight on, but I actually like how it looks in the photos.  I do think I could have used that extra room in the bust.  On the positive side, it should fit even after more of the baby weight comes off.

I didn't try to match stripes on the sleeves - no excuse other than that I was tired when I cut and sewed this.

Man I look tired.

Maternity tee tutorial: 3 ways to sew it

I first wrote those post more than five years ago while in the home stretch of my last pregnancy. It's been pretty popular, so I wanted to update it to be a little easier to understand. (To be clear, I am not currently pregnant!)

Plantain #4 and this business of taking good photos

I have always loved stripes.  My wardrobe always contains at least one striped tee.  But now that I have discovered the liberating world of successfully sewing my own knit tops, I think I am headed for stripe overload.  This is my second striped Plantain, and I have two more cuts of striped cotton/lycra jersey in adult tee quantity.  I need to buy more solids.

I wore my new tshirt to church on Sunday so that we could take some photos on the way home.  This city definitely offers some interesting backdrops.

My husband is getting better with his photo composition, but today I realized that I need to tell him to look critically at the clothes and tell me, for example, that my skirt is lopsided (that seam is parallel to the hem, I swear).  Or that I'm pulling one side of my striped shirt down with my hand so the stripes look wonky when I assure you they are not.

I actually made the skirt two years ago out of old jeans.  But now that I am thinner I need to take in the waistband a bit so it doesn't go lopsided when I wear it.

I also didn't realize that I was wearing my hair draped over my shoulders in every picture until I got home and saw that there was not one good photo of the neckline.  So I had to resort to bathroom pictures after putting the baby to bed.  Man, I look tired.  It was a long weekend.

So we have a little to work on, when it comes to photos.

But back to the pattern.  I guess this is now officially a TNT pattern for me.  My final fit adjustment was as follows: I cut a straight 40 for the back.  For the front, I cut a 40 in the shoulders, and graded out to a 42 at the bottom of the armscye, then continued as a 42 all the way down, but with 40 length.  I cut a 40 neckband and a 42 sleeve.  I am very happy with the fit, so I'm done tweaking.  Yay!

I used a cotton/lycra from Girl Charlee.  It is very comfy and silky, but the fabric did pill a bit after I prewashed it (six times).  For the neckband I used a purple rayon-lycra from Joann's.  It doesn't quite match - but I wanted a solid neckband and it did not occur to me until afterwards that I could have done so with my striped fabric if I had done a little math and centered the purple stripe under the pattern piece.  I really love the color combination, and I will definitely wear this a lot, but after looking at it some more I think maybe thinner stripes are more flattering on me.

Not much else to say about this one.  Love it!

The best laid plans - aka Plantain #3

So I was going to sew the Plantain dress based on the tutorial on the Deer&Doe blog.  I was going to make a color-blocked version with a red top and a navy skirt. Only it turned out I didn't have enough of the red knit.  So I made navy sleeves. And I thought red elbow patches would be a little cartoonish, so I used the striped knit left over from my last Plantain.

And then I sewed the dress and it looked ... a little matronly on me.  Probably because my bodice was a little long (my natural waist is a tad higher than the notch at the side seam of the Plantain pattern where you are supposed to slash it).  Or because the weight of the skirt was pulling it down a bit.  

So I decided to chop it.  And then I was going to take all these great pictures of myself on the balcony, but seriously I looked so dumb in 90 percent of them.  And the exposure was all wrong.  

So I resorted to the bathroom-mirror pictures.

 Note the potty sticker chart on the wall.

I don't have any hope of winning the Plantain challenge as there are some seriously beautiful ones out there already, but I wanted to give it a go - and today is the deadline.

So I thought, ok, I'll have my husband take some quick outdoor pictures Friday morning before work. I always like how I look in the ones he takes - somehow his vantage point from 6'1" always makes me look thinner.

I got up at 7 a.m., got dressed and then the baby woke up.  I went in to feed him ... and then he projectile vomited all over me and my new Plantain.

So these are all the pictures I have.

Here's a very blurry close up of my best knit neckline to date.  For this one, I cut the neck binding as patterned, but I sewed them together with a 3/8" seam instead of a 5/8" seam.

Also on this version, I cut a 40 shoulder and then extended out to size 42 at the end of the armhole for more room across the bust.  It's a better fit and I will do it from now on.

Plantain, not so plain

I learned about Plantain, Deer&Doe's free downloadable tshirt pattern, about a week or so ago - so just a week or two after it had been released.  And there were already eleventh billion Plantains on the internet.  That's to be expected - it's a free and easy women's pattern.  But as it turns out - it is a free, easy and totally awesome women's pattern.   I predict eleventy billion more Plantains on the internet in the coming months - several more, for sure, on this blog!

Cotton knits are not easy to find in Tbilisi, but I had luckily stocked up this summer with a Girl Charlee order, with the idea of making a few Sewaholic Renfrews.  I have the pattern but haven't drafted it yet.  I am one of those odd souls who actually prefers Internet downloads - no futzing around tracing thin pattern tissue to preserve other sizes - with downloads you can just print it out again!

I didn't want to waste one of my precious Girl Charlee cuts on an ill-fitting shirt, though, so on Friday, I found a synthetic (I think) knit in the stash with enough yardage, and cut the size 42.  My measurements put me at a 44 but everyone has been saying to size down.  And on Saturday, after about an hour of sewing (most of that time spent wrestling with my twin needle, before my machine just gave up) I ended up with this:

The fit was good through the bust but too big everywhere else.

And this knit has no recovery at all, so by the end of the day the top was slipping right off my shoulders.

So last night, I cut another one, this time in a straight 40.  I probably should have cut a 40 shoulder, 42 bust and then graded between the two for the rest ... but I couldn't be bothered.  I used a Girl Charlee navy and white striped cotton/lycra leftover after sewing an Oliver+S Field Trip Raglan for my oldest.  Isn't it pretty?

I managed to get a 3/4-length-sleeved top out of the remaining 1 1/3 yards of 60" wide fabric.  I also tried elbow patches this time, using scraps of a purple interlock leftover from a Maria Denmark Kimono tee I made over the summer.

My machine was happy to sew the elbow patches using a stretch stitch, but it simply would not do a twin needle at all.   I used a ballpoint needle and a walking foot and everything.

I don't think it's visible, but I had to topstitch the neckline with a stretch stitch.  I don't know what's up - my machine used to twin needle like a champ.  It won't zigzag knits anymore either - though it will do both on wovens.  I'll have to take it in when we go back to the States.

Anyway, back to the top.

Given my twin-needle-handicapped status, I decided to just do a rolled edge on my serger for the hem and the sleeves and call it good.  It's a little lettucey, so I may try it again, since I have length to play with.

Or, and this is much more likely, I'll just wear it whenever it's clean and never bother to do anything to it.

Yep.  Much more likely.